A Ghost of Daisies

Today’s adventure at work involved me completely breaking my Drupal installation. My workbook told me to go ahead and download and install the CCK module. There’s just one little problem: it completely broke my website.

My steps were as follows:

I uploaded the CCK module to my Drupal install and enabled all the options listed under CCK. When I clicked Submit/Save, I got an error 500. So I hit the back button and deselected all the CCK items. Now nearly ALL my administrative tools are gone. I can’t even find the link to put my site back online! This also took out my ability to make new content pages, add/delete modules (there is no longer a link!). I even deleted CCK from my server but still nothing.

Over on the Drupal forums, someone suggested that I “empty the cache tables.” My boyfriend worked with me on this part and in the end the website broke even further. So tomorrow I’m going to delete the whole website and start over again. I’m pretty aggravated.

Recipe can be found here.

These AMAZING mint brownies’ recipe.

All photos by Thomas Kozak.

My favorite parts of these unfrosted Oreo cupcakes is the fine texture that is a result of the cocoa powder. The second is that there is a whole Oreo cookie in the bottom of each cupcake.

I was in a hurry to go to a potluck, so I didn’t have time to make the first batch of cupcakes, take them out, and then reuse the pan. So instead I squashed about 8 Oreos in a sandwich bag with my rolling pin, then put them in this glass pie pan. I then poured the remaining cupcake batter on top to make this delicious dessert!

Made from this recipe.

Using this recipe, I made mint brownies for my boyfriend to celebrate Valentine’s Day.

The ingredients

The brownie mix

The icing

The finished product

Unfortunately, I didn’t take a photo of the top layer of icing which resulted in the brown finished product above. My boyfriend said it was like biting into an Andes mint. I loved making this. The brownie batter was so good that I was licking it off my fingers so I wouldn’t miss any.

I hope you had someone to share the love with today!

As part of my graduate assistantship, I am building a website for a project connecting international librarians. However, in order to get started on following my bosses’ specifications, I needed a content management system (CMS) that could handle the work and be easy to update for a non-programmer like myself. After a tip from a close friend, I started investigating Drupal and found out that it is used by the White House and the group that is paying me for my work. With this reassurance, I decided set forth on my journey.

The first thing I needed to do was to learn about Drupal. I choose Teach Yourself Drupal in 24 Hours which is not the best edited book. However, it’s a starting point. The next part was to install Drupal on my 1and1 hosted server. Below are the steps that took me two hours to figure out:

Read more…

I found out the vet was trying to sell me a tale: charge me $80 for an at-home glucose blood monitoring machine when I could pick up the ReliOn Micro from Walmart for $13. The testing stripes costed $22 though so that was a bit steeper (using the internet for next time).

I came to this decision based on my vet trying to get me to come in every week for $80+ testing when I could be monitoring Dollbaby’s health here at home. This website has been a miracle saver for me! They’ve been guiding me on how to do this at home. There are even videos they link to to show you exactly how this process workers. I’m really appreciative of the forum where people have been so kind to my n00b self. The design of the website is way Old School but the information is great!

I’m going to try doing this on Monday, so I’ll report back then.

I first heard of Maggie Mason from ABCNews talking about women bloggers. I quickly fell in love with her blog (though it’s been a bit on the outs lately) and was inspired by her to keep chipping away at my own blog (what you’re reading now). For a good discussion about Maggie’s Mighty Life List, click here. In short, it’s a list of things you want to do before you die. I’ve been having trouble building mine but I’ll update this post with new items as I think of them:

1) Write a completed novel
2) Take Dad to Hatteras Point, NC
3) Carry a child to term/be a mother
4) Learn how to watercolor

• Anne of Green Gables series by L.M. Montgomery
• I first received a 50 cent copy of Anne of Green Gables as a 5th grade Christmas present. I took to reading it the next November and it changed my life. It was also the only time my mom ever took me into a book store and bought me an entire series.
• Read online here.
• An article about the displacement of Anne in literature canon.
• The Little House Books by Laura Ingalls Wilder
• I had seen other kids carrying these books around but was determined not to read it since I always had a popularity contest in my reading selection. Then in 4th grade, we were forced to read Little House in the Big Woods and my heart was stolen away. Who can resist that opening line about “Long time before even today’s grandparents were born…”? A note about the readings is that they’re told out of order and a whole section of Laura’s life was not documented since it involved her family living over a saloon and the birth and death of the only male child of Ma and Pa Ingalls.
• Read online here.
• His Dark Materials Trilogy by Phillip Pullman
• A renowned atheist, Phillip Pullman brings together his great mockery in the most delicious package that ended up hurting and ultimately killing the success of The Golden Compass movie when the religious undertones were ripped out in order to appeal to a wider audience (it’s still amazingly stunning. The child playing Lyra was spot on; I wish we could have seen Will in movie form too). Don’t let the religious undertones turn you away, since this is an amazing series which still leaves you feeling unsatisfied at the end, though you know it had to end that way at the end.
• The Old Kingdom Trilogy by Garth Nix
• In high school, the first book, Sabriel, was making the rounds of my friends. My friend asked a few of us to read a passage to ourselves and then once we were all done, he asked us to describe how we had imagined that particular scene. It was unnerving how differently we could interpret the exact same words! These books are a bit gruesome as they deal with death and demons, but the flawed characters and swiftly moving storyline draws you in till the bitter end.
• Personally I listened to the series through the magic of Tim Curry’s reading voice. If you’ve got a lot of driving to do, this is the way I recommend it since he does a beautiful job with the unfamiliar names.
• The Song of the Lioness Quartet: Alanna series by Tamora Pierce
• Introduced to me in middle school, I was scandalized by the final two books. Here is a heroine gone undercover to become a knight who also has a healthy sexual appetite. How many female heroines can claim that? Tamora Pierce continues to dabble in Alanna’s world through several series, so it’s fun to get occasional peeks at what Alanna continues to be doing in her life.
• The Dragonlord series by Joanne Bertin
• Silly covers, but The Last Dragonlord and Dragon & Phoenix are amazing books. I was handed the books before I flew cross-country and I couldn’t put them down.

As a present to myself thanks to my tax refund, I decided to purchase myself a Wacom Bamboo Fun Pen & Touch tablet. I could have repurchased the Wii that I was forced to return for my cat’s surgery, but my roommate is going to get one. So! I got this for a “try it out” basis to see how I like it and already I’m addicted and in love.

Hizseldes (as written about here) took the drawing virginity of this tablet. Her pose/anatomy is weird but I had fun. I think the bigger surface area (8.5 x 5.5″) made a real difference when compared to my last tablet drawing.

I’m no where as near talented as Shiver, but this is a start. I don’t know how shadows or highlights work on the facial plane so I’m mostly guessing here.